Improvement in cigars and cigarettes



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

THOIWIAS GRIFFIN, OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Specification forming partof Letters Patent No. 88,033, dated March 23, 1869.

To all whom t may concer-n:

Be it known that I, THOMAS GRIFFIN, of Roxbury, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Composition Coating for the Ends of Cigars and Cigarettes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is an external view of a cigar having its pointed end coated and perforated. Flg. 2 is a sectional view of the same. Fig. 3 shows a cigarette having one end coated.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the three figures.

The nature of my invention consists in coating that end of a cigar or cigarette which is put into the mouth with a substance which is insoluble in water, not unpleasant to the taste, and which shall be so pliant that it will not be liable to crack or scale off the tobacco either in the handling or use of the cigar in the mouth, as will be hereinafter described.

To enable others skilled in the art to understand my invention, I will describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents a cigar, which may be made in the usual wellknown manner; and a represents a thin adhering coating, which covers all that portion of the cigar which is inserted into the mouth while smoking, and which forms a permanently-attached mouth-piece upon the point of the cigar. In Fig. 3 the coating a is represented as being applied to a cigarette.

The coating which I employ for the cigarsll or cigarettes is composed of shellac, rosin, in` dia-rubber, and alcohol, in the following proportions, to wit: one part (solution) of indiarubber, three parts (powdered) rosin, twelve parts gum-shellac, and sixteen parts alcohol or its equivalent. 'd

These ingredients,in the proportions named, will, when Well mixed, make a pasty cement, which will adhere to and cover the ends of cigars with a thin skin-or coating by simply dipping the cigars into it.

Such cement can be colored by using' any suitable pigment 5 and, if desirable, a color may be used resembling that of the color and shade of color of the cigar or cigarette, as the case may be.

The cement may be applied to cigars after they are finished and dried, or it may be applied instead of or in conjunction with the paste usually employed in iinishing the points of cigars in manufacturing them.

The improved cement which I employ, being composed in part of india-rubber, is not only Water-proof and smooth in appearance when applied to the points of cigars, but it is sufficiently pliable to form a pliable coating or skin for the tobacco which will neither crack nor scale off in the handling ofthe cigars nor in smoking them.

A brittle cement or enamel would not answer the purpose required, for the tobacco is of itself very brittle when dry, and if coated with a brittle enamel the coating would scale olf, and in many cases take with it portions of the wrappers of the cigars, even should the greatest care be observed in handling or smoking the cigars.

A coating of brittle enamel would crack and be destroyed if applied to a moist cigar by the shrinking of the tobacco during the act of drying the cigars. On the contrary, a coating of iiexible enamel, such as I have herein described, would not be liable to crack or scale off during the act of handling, drying, or smoking cigars.

For the reasons above given I do not claim coating the ends of cigars with brittle cement,

which will form mouth-pieces upon them, nor

do I confine myself to the precise proportions herein mentioned, as they might be slightly varied without departing from the character of my invention 5 but the ingredients themselves are' not to be changed, and in no case must the india-rubber be left out of the composition, as it constitutes the main novelty of the same, and by its use the flexibility so desirable is retained after the ingredients have become dry.

My improved flexible or pliable coating will not only form a permanently-attached mouthpiece on a cigar, but it will, in consequence of its pliability or yielding quality, serve as a good protection to the points of cigars by covering and protecting the wrapper from becoming loose or otherwise injured by handling.

The perfor-ations I) b through the mouth- A cigar or cigarette having a permanentlypieces a may be made by the manufacturer attached flexible mouth-piece upon one end, before the cigars are put into the market, or which is composed of ingredients mixed in the they may be made by the consumer7 and are proportions substantially its described. designed to allow smoke to be drawn through said mouth-piece in the act of smoking. l THOMAS GRIFFIN Having described my invention7 what I Witnesses: claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters E. L. PERKINS,

Patent, is H. F. SAWYER. 

